As wireless networks evolve and grow, combinations of older and newer technologies may be implemented within a single wireless network. For instance, a heterogeneous network can be configured to include various types of access nodes such as a higher power access node (macro cells) as well as one or more smaller, lower power network access nodes (small cells), such as microcells, femtocells, picocells, Home evolved Node Bs (HeNBs), and Enterprise evolved Node Bs (EeNBs). Further, each access node in the wireless network may provide or “deploy” one or more air-interface frequency bands for serving wireless devices on the network. For example, a particular small cell access node may deploy a different air-interface frequency bared than is being used by the macro cell. A macro cell may deploy three different frequency bands, and a neighboring macro cell with an overlapping range may serve two of the three frequency bands. The plurality of frequency bands served in the same area enable user equipment (UE) such as wireless devices to select specific frequency bands depending upon congestion, usage, application type, etc. However, current methods for load balancing between frequency bands are inefficient, particularly when wireless devices resume activity from idle mode.